Beverle Lorence "Bebe" Buell (born July 14, 1953) is an American fashion model and singer, and Playboy magazine's November 1974 Playmate of the Month. She is also known for dating rock musicians, and her social relationships with musical and cultural icons cross four decades. She is actress Liv Tyler's mother from a brief relationship with Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler. In 2001, she wrote an autobiography (with Victor Bockris) titled Rebel Heart: An American Rock and Roll Journey. The book was a New York Times bestseller. The paperback was issued in 2002.

Music[edit]

In 1981, Buell recorded a four song EP on Rhino Records, produced by Rick Derringer and Ric Ocasek, with The Cars serving as her band on two tracks. The rock band The Power Station began in 1984 when her then-boyfriend John Taylor (of Duran Duran fame) pulled some famous friends together to provide backing for another of Buell's musical efforts. She also formed the band The B-Sides in 1980 but they disbanded in 1985.

She founded another band called The Gargoyles in 1985, and released a couple of singles. A few large record companies were showing interest, but they disbanded when the paternity of her daughter Liv became publicly known in 1991. She withdrew from performing for six years in the 1990s. Buell managed her daughter Liv, helping to launch her career as a successful international model and actress. She also represented actress Charis Michelsen.

After Buell's daughter left home in 1997, Buell returned to music to record a solo effort with producer Don Fleming, released in 2000. She also performed around New York with the Bebe Buell Band and, later, with Boston musicians The Rudds and The Neighborhoods' drummer Johnny Lynch to form a new band for a few shows which also included husband Jim Wallerstein.

In April 2009, the Boston duo Chester French released a tribute to Buell with their album track "Bebe Buell."

As of June 2009, the lineup for The Bebe Buell Band was: Bebe Buell on vocals, Jim Wallerstein on guitar, Pete Marshall on bass, David Matos on lead guitar, Aya on keyboards, Lindsey Anderson on guitar, and Bobbie Rae on drums.

She released her first recording in ten years with a single "Air Kisses for the Masses" in May 2009 and completed recording of a full-length 12-song album, set for late Fall 2009. It can be downloaded on iTunes or Amazon MP3. Buell is playing a series of live shows in the New York City area to promote the single.

In September 2011, Buell released Hard Love, an aggressive rock album influenced by grunge and glam rock. The album was produced by Bebe's husband James Wallerstein of the critically acclaimed proto-grunge band Das Damen, and Stephen DeAcutis. The 11-track record features original songs alongside covers of Gang of Four's "I Love A Man In Uniform" and "Baby Baby" by the English punk rock band The Vibrators.

From 1972 to 1979, Bebe Buell had a longterm, on and off, relationship with Todd Rundgren. In 1976, Buell became unexpectedly pregnant from her brief relationship with Steven Tyler. On July 1, 1977, Buell gave birth to future actress/model Liv Tyler. But Buell initially named the daughter Liv Rundgren and claimed that Todd Rundgren was the biological father to protect the child from Tyler's drug addiction. Rundgren and Buell ended their romantic relationship shortly after Liv's birth, but Rundgren put his heart and soul into the "white lie". At age nine, Liv found out that she was Steven Tyler's biological daughter.[10][11][12]

In 1992, Buell married for the first time. She wed sometime-musician and actor Coyote Shivers.[1] They divorced in 1999 after a year-long separation.[13] In 2002, she married musician Jim Wallerstein[8] (aka Jim Walters) of Das Damen and Vacationland fame.

For his film Almost Famous, music journalist and filmmaker Cameron Crowe developed the groupie character Penny Lane as a composite of a handful of girls he saw backstage in the late 1960s and early 1970s at concerts calling themselves the "Flying Garter Girls". One girl who went by the nickname Pennie Lane is real-life Pennie Trumbull, born in Portland, Oregon, in 1954.[14] Though they were not in the Flying Garter Girls group, various other women have been described as Crowe's inspiration, for instance Pamela Des Barres[15] and Buell. Buell partially inspired Crowe; he named a lead singer character Bebe.[16]